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Overview

"A valuable resource for scholars and students of Judaic, Israel, Middle Eastern, and women's studies. There is no single volume currently available that represents such a broad range of historical, political, religious, and cultural approaches to Israeli women. This book will fill that gap for years to come!"-Judith R. Baskin, editor of Jewish Women in Historical Perspective

"Esther Fuchs is a superb scholar who has created a must-read for academics and the general public alike. Broad public interest in Israel and the Middle East will certainly make this collection of essays on Israeli women a widely-read and important volume."-Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

Israeli women do not enjoy the equality, status, and power often attributed to them by the media and popular culture. Despite significant achievements and progress, as a whole they continue to earn less than their male counterparts, are less visible and influential in the political arena, do not share equal responsibilities or privileges in the military, have unequal rights and freedoms in family life and law, and are less influential in shaping the nation's self image and cultural orientation.
Bringing together classic essays by leading scholars of Israeli culture, this reader exposes the hidden causes of ongoing discrimination and links the restrictions that Israeli women experience to deeply entrenched structures, including colonial legacies, religious traditions, capitalism, nationalism, and ongoing political conflict. In contrast, the essays also explore how women act creatively to affect social change and shape public discourse in less ostensible ways.
Providing balanced perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities, this comprehensive reader reflects both an emerging consensus and exciting diversity in the field. It is the definitive text for courses in Israeli women's studies.

Esther Fuchs is a professor in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at the University of Arizona and the author of Israeli Mythogynies: Women in Contemporary Hebrew Fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

What Betty Friedan did for American women-i.e., she gave them a voice to explain their discontent with the status quo-Fuchs (Judaic studies, Univ. of Arizona; Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative) does for Israeli women with this compilation of essays. Here, a range of social science and humanities scholars examines the lives of Israeli women from religious, political, economic, and cultural perspectives and reveals that, contrary to the popular "myth of equality," Israeli women are victims of discrimination. The book spans Israeli history from the beginning of the feminist Zionist women's movement in 1911 to the current state, where women are conscripted to serve in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Surprisingly, the IDF is one of the most segregated institutions in Israeli society; it seems that the militaristic society Israel has adopted in order to survive as a country has created a male-oriented culture where women are expected to support the soldiers/men at the expense of their own needs. Discrimination exists elsewhere as well. With Orthodox beliefs influencing the legal realm, religious law now takes precedence over matters of marriage and divorce, and women cannot sign documents, be witnesses, or testify in rabbinical courts. The quality and scope of the essays should make this book a classic on the subject. An optional purchase for public libraries but highly recommended for academic libraries.-Cathy Carpenter, Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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